SPF, DKIM and DMARC: what are they and how important are they for your email security

Email security has improved significantly in recent years thanks to new authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Doesn't it bother you when an email comes from what looks like your bank or credit card company but is fake? What happens when these emails try to solicit sensitive information from you by impersonating these companies?

These are scams, known as phishing, and can create big problems for recipients who trust these emails.

Fortunately, several authentication frameworks have been implemented to ensure that sending emails through SMTP servers is much more secure, making it much more difficult to impersonate a third party and obtain fraudulent information.

Knowing how the SPF, DKIM and DMARC email authentication tools work together to keep your emails secure is the perfect first step to protecting yourself and your contacts from fraudulent emails!

Once you have a better understanding of these authentication frameworks, you can properly configure SPF, DKIM and DMARC policies for your own sending domain and IP to increase the deliverability of your emails and make your messages more secure.

SPF authenticates emails

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are the companies that provide the world with access to the Internet and the ability to send and receive email.

With email marketing, we are most concerned with mailbox providers such as Gmail and Yahoo, which fall into this category.

ISPs protect against malicious attackers from sending spam and masquerading behind another company's sending domain or email address through filters and security protocols.

One of the most important tools in this fight against email fraud is an authentication system called the Sender Policy Framework (SPF).

SPF allows you to designate specific sending hosts (IP addresses) that are authorised to send emails using your domain (e.g. sendinblue.com).

This allows ISPs to verify if the sending IP matches your SPF record and to reject any spoofers using your domain to send email from unauthorised hosts in an effort to protect against fraud and spoofing.

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